Hurricane
by Jack Cross
Summary: Alex Chambers thought his life was already chaotic enough as it was. But now, in the aftermath of Harmonic Convergence, things are only getting worse. As if new Airbenders and Charged wasn't enough, his enemy Mercer is still on the loose. To top it all off, rebellion grows in the Earth Kingdom, and the Red Lotus are returning. Can Alex and his friends overcome these foes?
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys, I'm here with the start of the next installment of the Tempest series. Alex Chambers' story continues and begins to grow more intense as we enter into the events of Book 3.**

 **I do not in any way, shape, or form own Legend of Korra.**

Korra sat with her legs curled up into her chest as she looked out over the Republic City skyline. It had been two weeks since Harmonic Convergence and her decision to keep the Spirit Portals open. Some in her group of friends, such as Tenzin, had welcomed this with open arms. For the first time in ten thousand years, Humans and Spirits would be allowed to coexist side by side. Others hadn't taken the concept as well as the Airbending Master had.

Some, such as President Raiko, had been upset with the overgrowth of spirit vines which infested many of the city's districts. They displaced people from their homes, they blocked roadways and infrastructure, and in general they made traveling around the city that much harder. Those concerns she could understand, and in fact she had been working to try and find a solution to that problem.

Then, there was Alex.

Alex Chambers, the young man who's very existence had brought her more headache, heartache, and general annoyance then almost anyone else. A little over a year ago, Korra hadn't even known the dirty blonde haired teen. In fact, he technically hadn't even existed in this world in the first place.

Alex came from some other world, a place which to Korra sounded like some kind of sci fi fantasy compared to Republic City. He had told her stories of a world in which technology that was about a hundred years more advanced then anything this world had. She'd often found these descriptions hard to picture, but usually kept trying because she found it interesting.

When he had first come to Republic City, Alex had been just another teenager prepared to graduate from high school and strike out into the world on his own. Then he, his friend Kelly Masters, and a scientist named Doctor Leon Tannan had been transported here by an experiment of Tannan's that had gone wrong.

Although the trio survived the trip between realities, it couldn't be said that they emerged from the event unscathed. Each one of them wound up developing special abilities, activated by being exposed to the Rift Energy that exists between worlds. Kelly had developed magnetism, Tannan had developed the ability to absorb another person's chi, and Alex had developed the ability to control and manipulate electricity.

At first, Alex had struggled to control his newfound powers. However he was soon able to master them and decided to use his powers for good by becoming a vigilante, protecting people from the ramped Triad crime wave. This was around the time Korra and Alex first met. Their first meeting was...less then stellar, with Korra being shipped off to jail and Alex managing to slip out of police custody.

Over time, however, with the growing Equalist threat, Korra and Alex found themselves working more and more together, and their anger toward each other mellowed out into a banter based friendship. Eventually, Alex's heroic tendencies won out, and the Avatar found herself falling in love with the electric user. She wasn't able to fully express these feelings though, as Alex was already in another relationship with Asami Sato.

With the downfall of Amon and the end of the Equalist Revolution, Korra finally admitted her feelings to Alex. The young man, however, was barely a shadow of the young man he once was. Tannan in a literal thirst for power had gone insane and killed several people in order to steal their bending abilities. He'd also claimed Kelly's life in the process, causing Alex to kill him in revenge. Then, Alex had left the city, searching for his sister Lucy as well as answers behind his powers.

When he came back about a month ago, Korra had been more then angry with Alex. He'd gone off for selfish reasons, and had nothing to show for it. She had been forced to deal with her pent up feelings alone, at first. Then she started talking with Asami. It had started off as conversations that went into the night, and from there it had escalated into feelings both for each other and Alex.

Despite her anger at his departure, Korra found that she couldn't stay mad at him forever, and her feelings for him still burned rather brightly. So when the truth came out about Asami and her, Korra found herself entering this experimental three way relationship with the other two. Lately though, she had a feeling that the relationship was over.

Alex had been against keeping the Spirit Portals open from the very beginning. They allowed an untold amount of Rift Energy to pour into the world and thus ran the risk of creating more people like Alex. The electric user was highly against this, believing that people should have the choice on whether or not they wanted these kinds of powers and responsibilities. So when Korra told him of her choice, to say that Alex lost his temper would be an understatement. He had stormed off with little more then a change of clothes and some cash, vanishing into the Earth Kingdom.

"Korra?" The Avatar turned her head to find Asami standing a short distance away. In the past few weeks, the heiress had taken to wearing fingerless gloves as a means of protection for other people. Asami had been exposed to Rift Energy during their initial visit to the South Pole and as a result had developed the ability to absorb the energy out of a spot. This resulted in the moisture in the air around the spot to flash freeze, thus giving off the illusion that Asami could control ice. An unfortunate side effect of this was that she still had little control over it, and could easily give someone frostbite by accident when touching them.

"Chief Beifong just called, there's a situation in the Dragon Flats Borough."

"What? More vines going crazy again?" Korra asked rather glumly. Ever since the vines had started growing, people had taken to trying to tear them up and reclaim parts of the city that had been lost. The problem was, the vines were sentient. So when some random firebender decided to try and burn his way back into his apartment complex, chances were the vines would react violently, and then Korra would have to be called in to try and figure out a solution.

"No. There's someone there who just started doing things out of nowhere. Beifong and Mako think it's a Charged," Asami said, sending a chill down Korra's spine. Alex had warned before he left that Charged would start appearing, but she had disregarded his warning due to her anger. Now it seemed her short sightedness was going to come back to bite her.

"Let's not keep the good Chief of Police waiting," Korra said as she got to her feet and picked up her new airbending staff.

 _Dragon Flats Borough._

The apartment complex wasn't anything out of the ordinary. A little rundown, but that wasn't unexpected given the neighborhood it was in. It also wasn't anywhere near the districts that were effected by the vines. Still, that didn't stop all the people who were crowded outside the front entrance from muttering amongst themselves in angered tones.

Asami and Korra pulled up in Asami's black racer, looking over the scene with concern. Standing between the crowd and the entrance were a line of metalbenders, blocking the people from going back inside. From the crowd emerged Lin and Mako, both of them making a bee line for the two young women.

"What's going on?" Korra asked with concern as they climbed out of the car.

"We've got a situation. The suspect has barricaded himself in his apartment and won't open up, claiming he'll hurt anyone who gets close to him," Lin said.

"Does he have a hostage or something?" Asami asked, noting the way the police were handling the situation.

"Oh, no I don't mean he's threatening anyone. He's terrified, keeps ranting that he sets anything and everything he touches on fire," Lin explained. The Avatar and the Heiress shared a glance. That was exactly how Asami's abilities had first developed, with her accidentally freezing the entirety of her office.

"So what do we know about this guy?" Korra asked as she folded her arms and looked up at the building.

"His name is Shun Khan. Recently graduated from High School and works at a local newspaper. We got a call from his roommate who was hysterical, claiming that Khan was setting everything he touched on fire. By the time we arrived, most of the building had been cleared and he had barricaded himself alone in his apartment," Mako answered.

"How are we gonna talk him down from this?" Asami asked.

"For now, we're just trying to get a look at him. See if he's still setting things alight," Lin said, gesturing up at the face of the building with her thumb. Sure enough, there were a few metalbenders hanging from their cables around a single window, trying to peer inside.

An explosion suddenly destroyed the window, sending the officers swinging away on their cables in a dazed manner. Debris rained down as the crowd screamed and ran in all directions in terror. Looking up, Korra spotted a young man hurdling toward them like a rag doll. She quickly deployed her staff and jumped into the air, catching him before he cratered a satomobile sitting by the curb.

Despite the sudden shift in weight and balance, Korra managed to keep the two of them in the air and glide them back to the street. The landing was a lot rougher then she would have liked, but at least they weren't splattered all over the pavement.

"Hot, hot, HOT!" she yelped before managing to separate herself from the young man. Shun was of Water Tribe decent, dark skin, dark hair, and green eyes. The heat that was rolling off of him was enormous, so much so that the air around him shimmered like he was a blazing campfire. Yet, strangely, he didn't have a drop of sweat on him.

"I'm sorry! I was just trying to get the stove going and make some ramon and..." he gestured toward the flaming remains of his apartment.

"Hey, hey, hey! Calm down. Your abilities are affected by their emotions," Asami said, holding out her hands in front of her. Shun took a deep breath and tried to do as she instructed. Sure enough, the heat that was radiating off of him lowered in intensity as well.

"O..okay, I'm calm. I'm calm," Shun said, mainly to himself more then those around him. Mako stepped forward.

"Mr. Khan, this is Asami Sato and Avatar Korra. They're going to help you figure out what's going on with you," he said. Shun looked surprised.

"Really? You guys have dealt with stuff like this before?" Korra and Asami shared a look.

"A time or two, yes," Asami answered.

"Oh. Well, my name is Shun. I'd shake hands but the way things have been going..." he trailed off, holding up his hands in a shrug.

"Don't worry, Shun. We'll get this all figured out," Asami said, putting her hand on his shoulder without so much as flinching. Korra figured this was due to her powers off setting his. As they started to walk off, Mako caught Korra by the arm.

"Where the hell is Alex? He's the main one who usually deals with this kind of problem," he said, keeping his voice down so Lin didn't hear.

"I don't know, Mako. No one has seen or heard from him in weeks. He could be anywhere right now."

 _Eastern edge of Si Wong Desert. Earth Kingdom._

The Earth Kingdom military train was sprawled out in the sand dunes in the shade of a large stone formation. It had derailed, and was now resting half buried in the sand with the cars scattered about like a toddler playing with it's toys. However a closer inspection of the tracks would have revealed that this had been no accident. Explosives had been planted, destroying the rails and insuring that the train would end up in the situation it was now.

Several Earth Kingdom troops were standing around the wreckage, guarding it as they waited for a clean up crew to arrive. The various sandbender tribes which wandered the desert were known to scavenge anything and everything off of wrecks that were left unattended. Of course, the fact that the tribes were currently engaged in a state of war against the Earth Queen's government didn't help matters. That also put them at the top of the list of suspects who were responsible for this act.

A jeep pulled up in front of the wreckage, and a well dressed officer stepped out of the passenger side. He had a shaven head and fair skin with a dark green uniform. Strangely he was lacking a hat, despite the intensity of the sun. A sergeant quickly came up to the officer in question and saluted.

"Sir, we've secured the train," he reported.

"Any signs of the local rabble?" the officer asked, seemingly board with the situation.

"No sir. No movement in any direction." The officer gave the sergeant a look of patience.

"Open the armored car."

"Sir?"

"Open the armored car, sergeant. Or do I need to repeat myself a third time?" the officer asked, his tone making it clear that the sergeant should not. Turning on the balls of his feet, the sergeant began shouting orders to the men around him. They all focused on a single car near the center of the wreck. It was armored with platinum, and still relatively upright and intact compared to some of the other cars around it.

Two privates grabbed the door on the side of the car and slid it open. Standing inside was a single person, a man wearing a long leather duster with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He was wearing a dark gray shirt, gray trousers, black combat boots, an olive green patrol cap resting on his head and had a samaugh pulled up over his nose and mouth so the only thing visible was his storm gray eyes.

At sight of the intruder, several of the soldiers raised their hands in preparation to bend. He quickly raised his hands, holding them aloft over his head in surrender. The officer stepped forward with his hands clasped behind his back and a smug smile on his face.

"You know, you really are a one trick poodle pony. This is the fourth train you've derailed. Did you really think we wouldn't catch on, Jason of the Si Wong?" the officer asked. The man suddenly clenched his fist without lowering his hands. In an instant, all of the soldiers except the officer in question cried out as crossbow bolts struck them down. The officer looked around in shock and surprise as his men fell to the ground, replaced by people in sandbender garb holding autocrosses.

"Actually, I was depending on it," came a new voice from the top of the car. The man in the rail car lowered his hands while the officer raised his. Standing on top of the rail car was a young man wearing desert garb like the rest, however his face was uncovered, revealing a young man with fair skin and blue eyes. He jumped down into the sand, landing perfectly as he regarded the officer in question.

"Is this him?" Jason asked over his shoulder. The man in the car stepped forward, out into the sunlight while lowering his face wrap.

"That's him. Colonel Mao, Hou Ting's personal attack dog," he replied. The Colonel's eyes went wide at the sight of the young man standing before him. Jason Orou, the scourge of the Si Wong Desert was one thing, but this?

"You're a madman, working with the Demon of Republic City," he spat at Jason. The desert leader gave him an amused look.

"Funny. This coming from the man who is solely responsible for the destruction of several sandbender villages. Only history will decide which one of us is the true madman, Colonel," Jason said. The Colonel spat into the sand at Jason's feet.

"Dogs, all of you! You are lower then the scum I scrape off my boot. You are a scourge upon this land, a scourge Her Majesty, the Queen has ordered to be removed at any cost. And I, I am her loyal servant and instrument!" Mao fell silent as Alex raised his hand toward him. He didn't actually make physical contact, but rather held it close.

"Listen up, you rabid psychopath. The brain controls the rest of the body through little electric signals, telling your heart to beat and your lungs to breathe, and so on. One flick of my wrist, and I can have you pissing and shitting yourself, or stop it all in one fell swoop. So you're gonna tell us what we want to know, or it's going to get way more painful then it needs to be," he said.

"The Earth Kingdom does not negotiate with terrorists like you, Demon," the officer replied with a glare. Alex frowned before grabbing his neck and letting off a shock. Mao's body shuttered before he collapsed face down in the sand, unconscious. Two sandbenders came forward and dragged the man away while Alex and Jason turned away and began to talk amongst themselves.

"Have you been able to figure out what exactly the Queen has sent after us?" Jason asked.

"Near as I can tell, it's an armored train with a contingent of soldiers. Not very original, but nothing we can't handle if we're expecting it," Alex replied.

"Hm. We'll have to get a warning out to Colonel Shi. She should be made aware of this threat," Jason said.

"She made it out of the mountains, didn't she?"

"Yes. Our last reports had her group on the other side of the desert, near Fort Bosco."

"Do you want me to go relay the message to her?" Alex asked. Jason shook his head.

"No. I need you near here, trying to find a way into the Capital. If we can get a man inside the walls, we'll stand a much better chance on getting intel on the Queen herself," he answered.

"Hou Ting never leaves the palace. Having a list of her daily bowel movement schedule won't help us, not if we're trying to maintain order," Alex said.

"We're fighting for our very existence, Alex. You know what is at risk. If it comes to it, I will plunge this country into anarchy before I see my people wiped from existence," Jason said. Alex let out a sigh. Hou Ting had no appointed heirs. If she died, the country would plunge into chaos thanks to the resulting power vacuum. Assassinating the Queen in order to ensure the tribes' survival was a step of them were willing to take, himself included.

"Getting into Ba Sing Se won't be easy. If Mao recognized me, others are bound to as well," Alex said. Jason placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I have faith in your abilities, my friend. If anyone can get past those walls, it's you."

 **And Cut. That's the end of the first chapter. I included the characters Jason Orou and Shun Khan, both owned by Avatar Conner and Shadow-Proclamation8, and both of whom have been heavily involved in the development of this series. Guys, I hope I did your boys proud.**

 **Now usually I include a soundtrack I've put together for an installment in this series in the first chapter. This time around I'm going to hold off on a chapter or two before releasing it so I can be sure it's the lineup that I want. Aside from that, I want to hear from you guys! Read! Review! PM! Smoke signal or mirror or something! Let me know what you guys liked or didn't like, and I'll see you all next time.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys, I'm back with a new chapter. Let's get it on with it:**

Lucy sat with her legs propped up on a table as she read the morning newspaper. She was in an outdoor dining pavilion on Air Temple Island. The paper was boring, just more of the same thing that had been happening over the past couple of weeks. Vines disrupted the city infrastructure, approval ratings of both the President and the Avatar were in the toilet, and public outcry still demanded the head of the one that had become known as the 'Demon of Republic City'.

It was the last part that infuriated the young plasma user to no end. The actual 'demon' had been Matthew Cross, a young man with dark energy manipulation abilities and a severely unstable mind set. Cross had fused with Vaatu, the Spirit of Darkness and Chaos, and had attacked Republic City with the intent of wiping it and the millions of people who called it home from existence. Only through the combined effort of herself, her brother Alex, and Avatar Korra had Cross been able to be stopped.

Almost immediately afterward, the newspapers in their fever pitch need to find someone to blame had pinned fault of the attack all on Alex. Since there was virtually nothing left of Cross' body after the battle, and no records of him existed, this shift of blame proved to be much easier then anyone would have thought.

It didn't help that Alex wasn't around to defend himself, either. In a fit of blind rage, he'd packed up his few belongings and stormed out of Republic City. Personally, Lucy thought that her brother was being childish. The entire stunt to her was little more then a teenager stomping off to their room when they didn't get their way. Of course, she'd tried to explain this to Korra and Asami. Neither of the young women seemed to care however.

Korra was too stubborn for her own good. She'd have this little spat last until the end of time if it meant she could get Alex to admit he was wrong and apologize. But Lucy knew her little brother, and knew him well. This would last months if not years if some kind of outside intervention wasn't used. First chance she got, she would resolve to get the two to either sit down and talk, or just beat each other to death. The latter of the two outcomes was more likely, given the two's previous history.

Asami, on the other hand, was a different story. Her anger with Alex was deeper, and simmered like a red hot coal waiting for fuel to be dumped on it. Lucy had used her natural charm, and half a bottle of sake in order to coax out what she was upset about. From what she had been able to gather, it seemed that Alex had blown his second chance with the heiress by running off like that. If he was so willing to run off over something so trivial, Asami was sure that he wasn't worth her time. Given that, Lucy wasn't about to touch that hornet's nest with a ten foot pole. It was easier just to watch the whole situation blow up in her brother's face from a distance. With popcorn, every good show wasn't complete without popcorn.

"Are you Lucy?" came a timid voice. Lucy didn't even bother to look away from her paper.

"Piss off," she said.

"Lucy," this voice was far more stern, causing the plasma caster to glance up from her reading material. Asami was standing there with her hands on her hips, while a young man stood next to her with his arms hugged to his side.

"Who's the kid?" she asked.

"This is Shun. He's gonna need our help," Asami said. Lucy cocked her eyebrow at the heiress, who promptly gave a hard tap onto Shun's back. The young man slowly raised a hand, and Lucy's newspaper burst into flames. She quickly dropped the flaming paper and slid back a little in surprise. Then, her eyes flashed with anger before pointing her index finger at Shun. The air in front of the young man's face exploded, sending him flying backwards across the pavilion and shattering a table in the process. Asami glared at Lucy and folded her arms.

"It's time, isn't it?" she asked with a sigh, ignoring the glare she was receiving. Asami didn't answer, but rather gave a single nod. Lucy pursed her lips before she got to her feet and turned her attention to the newcomer fully, who was bruised but otherwise alright. Yet another side effect of Alex running off, she was the only one besides Asami who could teach the new Charged how to use their powers.

"Alright, kid, listen up. My name is Lucy Chambers, and by the time the sun sets today you're gonna hate my guts."

 _Near Full Moon Bay, Earth Kingdom._

Thunder rumbled in the gray overcast as a light rain fell upon the railroad tracks. Yalishanda Shi, or Yali as she was known to her closer friends, looked at the view before her with a studying eye. This particular set of tracks ran along the bank of the Eastern Lake, and served as a main line connecting the eastern and western halves of the country.

Which was why she was watching her small band of rebels strap explosives to the rails. They were going to blow it and the next military train that came along into the lake, and by doing so disrupt Earth Kingdom military supply routes for several months. The hope was that this attack would be coordinated with sandbenders further south, as well as rebel units in the Northern Mountains. Resulting in a breakdown of transportation nation wide.

Yali and her people had just barely managed to escape destruction in the mountains along the boarder with the Untied Republic. They'd been working their way east, mainly skirting the edge of the desert in an effort to try and throw off anyone that was coming after them. Now that they were this close to the other major rebel units in the country, 'The Colonel' as her underlings so affectionately called her, had decided to go back on the offensive. She had received orders from the overall commander of the rebellion, Jason Orou, to set explosives along this set of track and then push southeast into the desert to link up with other units.

Her efforts to communicate and coordinate with the other rebel cells gave Yali hope. About a year ago, this whole thing had been nothing more then a few nomadic tribes declaring war against the Earth Kingdom government. Now, it was a full on rebellion that was rapidly growing into a civil war. The people were tired of Hou-Ting, a woman so enthralled with herself she couldn't be bothered to update the country's infrastructure, much less tend to the worries of the people. Now, they were standing up and telling her just what they thought of her and her little monarchy.

Blowing up railroads and trains wasn't the only reason she was in the area. Yali's orders from Jason had contained a second directive addressed to her directly. After the bombs went off, she was to locate an agent sent by Jason and help him enter Ba Sing Se. Although the identity of the agent had been left out of the orders, there had been a reassurance that she would know him when she saw him.

"Colonel, I think we found the guy you're looking for," one of her scouts said as he came to a halt in front of her, giving her a quick salute as he struggled to regain his breath.

"How are you sure of this?" she asked. There were several villages and towns in the area. Locating one man in the middle of all that was like finding a needle in a haystack. A little doubt was warranted on her part.

"He was sitting in a bar in a town about two miles up the tracks from here. He had some kind of hand held mirror that played music," the scout said, pointing back up the railroad in the direction he had come from. Yali frowned at the description. It had certainly narrowed down the possibilities of who the agent could be, and she was hoping she was wrong.

"Rai, I'm heading into town. As soon as you're done here head to the rally point and I'll join you later," she said. The young man in question gave her a quick two finger salute as she set off, following the scout back to the location he had been telling her about.

It didn't take long to get to the town, although calling it that would have been a little generous. The whole place was basically a glorified crossroads, a place where the railroad, actual road, and lake ferry all met. There was a telegraph office combined with a train station, a small general store combined with a filling station, a bar and hotel with were one in the same, a few houses and nothing else.

Shi didn't bother reading the name of the town on the sign that hung from the train station. It wasn't like she would be here long enough for it to matter either way. Her job was to supply this guy a way into Ba Sing Se and nothing else, so that was what she intended to do. The scout led the way into the bar and hotel before pointing off toward a corner in the back.

"He's over there," he said. Yali followed where he was pointing and was able to make out the form of a young man sitting at a table with his feet propped up on another chair. His back was to the corner, so no one could sneak up on him, and his head was hunched low like he was trying to sleep.

"Good job, rejoin the others," she said in a low voice to him. The scout gave a quick nod before hurrying off, leaving her alone to face whomever this was alone. As she crossed the barroom to the young man, she began to notice more and more of the little details. There were several bottles sitting on the table next to him, some of them beer, and some of them containing something much, much stronger.

This, combined with the ash tray that was full with cigarillo buds and ash indicated that the person had been sitting here for quite a long time and had long ago made himself at home. Then there was the music. At first, Yali had thought the owners had some kind of speaker system hooked up, but the closer she got the more it dawned on her that the music coming from him. It was strange sounding, not at all like the jazz and swing that was currently popular, or even like the more traditional music played in decades past.

 _'No one gets out alive, every day is do or die.'_

 _'The one thing you leave behind is; How Did You Love?'_

 _'How Did You Love?'_

 _'It's not what you believe, those prayers will make you bleed.'_

 _'But while you're on your knees; How Did You Love?'_

 _'How Did You Love?'_

As she drew closer, Yali realized that the young man was singing along to the music, although his words were slurred given how drunk he appeared to be. What's worse was that she realized that she recognized the young man before her, and he was not very high on her approval list.

"Alex Chambers, my oh my how the high have fallen," she said as she stopped and folded her arms. Alex stopped his drunken singing and looked up at her. He watched her through squinted eyes, before they suddenly went wide and a massive smile broke onto his face.

"Yali!" he yelled in delight as he went to stand and give her a bear hug. This instantly went sideways as he lost his balance and sat back down into his chair. She just folded her arms as she regarded him with annoyance.

"I may have had a little to drink," he said, holding his thumb and index finger close together.

"A little, huh," she deadpanned as she regarded the table before them both.

"I had a 'hic' drinking partner, but he ran off," he defended.

"Uh huh."

"It's true, I swear it. Speaking of true things, I need your help getting into the Capital," Alex said, pointing in the general direction that Ba Sing Se was in. Yali couldn't help but snort at that.

"Getting to the Capital? You need my help just getting to the bathroom without falling down," she said. Alex went to defend himself, but hiccuped again and promptly forgot all about it. Picking the electric user up and slinging his arm across her shoulders, she began to guide him out of the bar. Although she had no idea where to take the drunken idiot, she knew that staying in strange bar wasn't the best plan.

"Did you know you're very pretty? You are, if I do say so myself," Alex said with another hiccup. She would have elbowed him in the ribs, but refrained from doing so due to the fact that he wouldn't have felt it. On a more personal note, she might have taken the complement, if things had been different.

She was tall and lean thanks to a combination of her line of work and sometimes having to go a day or two without food. Her skin was a light tone, and her hair was a light copper brown color which was wild and unkempt, yet stopped at her ears. Her eyes, like Alex's, were a storm gray color. She was considered attractive by many, but due to her line of work and lively hood she rarely had time for the romance department.

Outside, Yali took notice of a pair of men in Earth Kingdom uniforms stopping and questioning people passing them by on the street. One of them was holding up a wanted poster, and though she couldn't see what was on it, it was better to be safe then sorry. Turning them, she began to walk them away from the soldiers at a brisk pace.

"Hey, you two, stop!" The young rebel almost shouted in frustration at her luck.

"Is there a problem ossifers?" Alex asked, whipping them both around and slurring his words. His grip on her shoulder tightened, though, a move which only she would have noticed. It gave her pause and made her wonder if her new companion was really as drunk as he was making out to be.

"There's been reports of rebel activity in the area. What is your twos business here?" one of the soldiers asked.

"My sister here was just taking me home. I had a little too much to drink.," Alex answered.

"Sir, it's barely even noon, and you're already drunk?" the other soldier asked.

"I work night shift down in the mines, it's technically 'hic' my midnight." For a moment, it didn't look like the soldiers were buying it, and Yali's body instinctively began to tense in anticipation of a fight.

"Make sure your brother gets home safely and sleeps it off," the first soldier said before they walked off. Alex flashed them a huge grin and a tip of his hat. It wasn't until they were gone that she let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding.

"You know, for a drunk you're not a half bad talker in a pinch," she said as they started walking again. To her surprise, Alex stood upright and straightened his jacket before walking under his own power.

"I'm not as drunk as I made out," he answered. Yali opened and closed her mouth a few times like a fish out of water, the rage slowly boiling up from within.

"You've been sober this whole time?!"

"No. I've been working my way back to sober this whole time," he corrected.

"But you were drunk, piss drunk at that, it takes hours to get over something like that," she said.

"Not me. Part of my healing factor is that toxins like alcohol get broken down quickly, so I'm over being drunk a lot faster then most people. Up side is there's usually no hangover," he explained.

"I will never understand how I would up working with such strange people," Yali said while shaking her head.

"You get use to it," Alex said with a shrug, "now, we've got a walled city to breech."

 _Mountains, Southeastern Earth Kingdom mainland._

The remote White Lotus prison was about as far from civilization as one could get. Considering how dangerous the sole prisoner being kept here was, that wasn't something that surprised Mercer a lot. He'd read the file on this Zaheer person that Unalaq had kept, and he was certain that this man would be the perfect replacement for Cross.

In the weeks since Cross' destruction at the hands of the Chambers siblings and Avatar Korra, Mercer had been traveling, looking for a way to restart his dream of a world for his kind. He'd heard the rumors going around. Reports of people developing abilities all over the world from out of thin air. Be it airbending or something else, what was clear was that the first part of his plan was working. But a united future required a figure to unite behind, and for that, he'd need a little help.

Which was where Zaheer came in. He may have anarchist who usually had his own agenda, but he was also very good at what he did, which was work to create chaos. This was why Mercer needed him. When it came to hitting the reset button on all the world's governments, he was the perfect man for the job.

"Open it," he ordered, holding out his hand toward a frightened White Lotus guard. Behind him were the bodies of the guard's comrades, all of them covered in burns and their bodies twisted in all manners of suffering. The guard quickly obliged, opening the vault to reveal a set of bar doors. Before the guard could react, Mercer concentrated on him.

Blisters and burns formed on his face as he grasped his throat, wailing in pain before collapsing against the bars, his face pressed against them as his lifeless eyes stared at the dark interior.

"Who's there?" came the voice from inside. Mercer strode forward and grabbed the corpse by the neck, yanking it backwards from the bars and allowing it to sprawl out.

"Your liberation, Mr. Zaheer, and your day of reckoning," came the answer.

 **And that's it. This chapter is kinda short and kind of a filler, but hey, that means more action in the future. What did you guys think? Let me know, drop a review, leave a PM, ask questions or send smoke signals, and I'll see you all next time.**


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